Crabbing an opportunity to spend time outdoors

Published 7:00 pm, Sunday, June 1, 2008

When I was a boy, a popular weekend spot was McCollum Park down in Chambers County. The park was located on Trinity Bay in the Beach City area. The main event was the crabbing. McCollum park had a long pier that seemed like it was a half a mile long. I’m sure it was much shorter but long enough for a lot of folks to line up and do some crabbing. Most of the crabbing was done with a chicken neck tied to a string - a simple, but very effective method. Today, the park is still there but the pier is long gone and the crabbers have had to find other places to crab.

Crabbing is a lot of fun and a great activity for kids. It’s a great way to introduce youngsters to the outdoors and its relatively inexpensive. All you need is a ball of string and a chicken neck and you’re in business. A dip net also comes in handy to dip the crabs up in.

Blue crabs can be found in just abut any water environment and thrive in both fresh and salt waters. Most crabbing activities however are done in the saltwater. Crabbing is not a sport that requires a boat. Most of the recreational crabbing is done from the bank or pier. Crabs are scavengers and prowl the shallows looking for food making them easy targets for crabbers.

Most people don’t have the luxury of owning water front property so they have to seek areas to do their crabbing. Most marinas or boat docks will allow crabbing. Some charge a small fee but some just let you go for free. Most of the commercial piers along the gulf will allow crabbing. Public boat ramps are also good spots you can try at no

charge. Over in Anahuac at the Fort Anahuac Park, there is a nice pier with good access for crabbers. In fact the pier is even lighted. The hot spot here locally is down at Champion Lake on CR 417. Reports from the staff that oversee the lake are that the crabbers are doing excellent from the bank there - a good example of a freshwater crabbing spot.

Blue crabs are of course excellent to eat and are somewhat of a delicacy in parts of the country. Most of the crabs consumed in the country are caught commercially and in some states like North Carolina, they are the state’s most economically important specie with a commercial value of 40 million dollars.

In order for crabs to grow, they must shed their shells. This shell shedding is effected by the moon phase and can be repeated up to 25 times in a crab’s life span which seldom exceeds 3 years. As a result of this shedding process, the crabs are soft-shelled and completely helpless. The new shell will harden over several days. Its in this soft-shell state that the crabs are at their height of culinary excellence. Soft-shell crabs can be found on the menus of the most fancy of restaurants.

Some other interesting facts about blue crabs in they have the ability to regenerate lost legs and pinchers. This is done during the shedding cycles. They also have the ability to voluntarily throw off a limb to escape from predators. Mature crabs are a sky blue color and can measure up to 10 inches across. It’s rare to find crabs that size these days with all the commercial crabbing that’s done. Just for your information, the male crab is called a “Jimmy” and “Sook” is the name given to a female crab.

If you are interested in doing some crabbing, there are a few laws that you’ll need to know about. For some reason, most people have the notion that a fishing license is not required to crab. Well guess what, a fishing license is required to catch or attempt to catch crabs no matter how primitive or simple the method to catch the crabs. Crabs have a size limit as well. The crabs must measure at least 5 inches across the widest point from spine tip to spine tip. There are no limits on the number of crabs that you can catch or possess.